I just wanted to post an update to this, now that my claim is finalised, so I can share some lessons I learned along the way through out the claims process with people that might find themselves in a similar situation.
(1) If you are involved in a similar accident as mine (details outlined above), where it was not your fault and your car has been deemed a write off by the Insurance Company, it might be tempting to just deal direct with the other parties insurance company, as I was ill advised to do. The Pro's to doing this are you won't have to initially pay out your excess ( as you would if you dealt with your own insurance co., although you will eventually be reimbursed when liability is established), also your no claims bonus will not be at risk (again if you deal through your own insurance co. your no claims will be effected until liability is fully established).
The Cons to dealing directly with the other parties insurance co. are this; (which ended up being an expensive lesson for me) the other parties Insurance co. will offer you a lower than book value for your car, they will use any means necessary to argue that it was not worth either the book value or the market value, in my case for example they asked for the car's service history and if it is not 100% complete with Main dealer Stamps they will say that is the reason for the lower valuation, they also said because the car was a U.K import it contributed to it being worth less. In my naivety when this happened I thought firstly I will pay for an independent valuation and then get my solicitor to fight the case, as I thought that there must be regulation/laws protecting me here, however the other parties insurance co. would not acknowledge or take into account any supporting evidence I supplied to them for a higher PAV valuation.
I then asked my solicitor to take the PAV dispute through to the Financial Ombudsman, but as it turns out the Financial Ombudsman will not intervene in disputes between an individual and the third parties insurer, they only mediate in disputes between individuals and there own Insurers where a contract is in place, due to Data protection issues. Insurance Co. know this and take full advantage of the lack of regulation. Therefore as I learned you have no protection whatsoever if choose to deal direct with the other parties insurer, and will have no choice whatsoever but to accept what ever low ball offer they put forward.
(2) When it comes your car i.e. the salvage, the Insurance Co. (either your own or the other parties whoever you choose to deal through) will appoint a motor assessor from a third party company to inspect your car, agree an estimate with the body shop, and if it turns out that your car is beyond economical repair and deemed to be an insurance write off (CAT A to CAT D), the motor assessor will determine the PAV ( Pre-Accident value of your Car), he will also obtain offers on the salvage from Salvage agents and then the Insurance Co. will send you the contact details of the Salvage agent that has made the highest bid. The Insurance Co. will say in there letter to you that you should dispose of the salvage as a matter of urgency, as now a bid has been made by 'Salvage Agent X' and they will not be liable for storage charges past a reasonable amount of time.
In my case the Salvage Agent that made the highest bid turned out to be from the other side of the country and also the offer seemed on the low side, out of curiosity I took some photos of my car and put together an email containing the photos and the full spec of my car, I then phoned about 7 Salvage agents (I found details of Salvage Agents on the Internet in the Leinster area) these agents were all within a 50 mile radius of where I live, the car was stored, and the Motor assessor was based. I firstly asked the Salvage Agents if they had already been offered the salvage previously, none of them had been, I then asked them if they were interested in buying the salvage, which they all were. I sent them all the email with Photos and asked them to respond with any offers, all 7 Salvage Agents replied and offered substantially more than the highest bid obtained by the Motor Assessor.
I found this to be worrying, and the only conclusion I could come to is that the Motor Assessor appointed by the Insurance Co. did not have mine or the Insurance Co. best interests at heart when trying to sell the Salvage.
I hope this information helps someone else avoid the mistakes I made, so that they get a fair settlement from there Insurance Co.